Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Paula Chacon attended her first city commission meeting on Thursday as the new city manager and presented a lengthy list of issues she had resolved or was trying to address. Chacon, a former county manager in Quay and Union counties and longtime official with the 10th Judicial Circuit, logged her first official day at City Hall last Monday after being hired earlier in August. Several city commissioners welcomed her during the meeting Thursday, and one acknowledged she faced multiple challenges....
Tucumcari football coach Donnie Garcia was looking for progress after the opening-week loss at Jal, and he found it with his defense during the Rattlers' home opener Friday night against Thoreau. Tucumcari's offense remains a work in progress, however. The Rattlers D showed grit by forcing two turnovers and halting several Hawks drives. However, the Rattlers offense didn't get much going for a second straight week, and Thoreau kept plugging away with its run game to turn a 16-0 halftime lead...
LOGAN - At the end of match point of the Lady Longhorn Volleyball Tournament championship, the Lady Rattlers celebrated like they never had won it before. That's because they hadn't. Tucumcari captured its first-ever title Saturday in the season-opening Logan tournament by defeating Springer 23-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-23. The Lady Rattlers went 3-0 in the tourney and earned a high seed after winning all their games in pool play Thursday. With Tucumcari clinging to a 24-23 advantage in the final...
LOGAN - Even without their best player for nearly the entire game, the Longhorns cruised to a 50-0 non-district victory over visiting Questa on Friday afternoon during nine-man football action. The game ended early in the third quarter by the mercy rule as Logan (2-0) racked up more than 300 yards of offense on the winless Wildcats. Logan quarterback Kaeden Stoner threw for 167 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another TD. Receiver Brock Burns caught three passes for 110 yards and a...
A regional entity that seeks to build a 120-mile water pipeline from Ute Lake has filed 17 legal filings against landowners in Quay County – including the county’s road commissioner – to seek access to the properties and inspect them before condemnation proceedings. Kameron Barnett, a principal for the Harmon, Barnett & Morris law firm in Clovis that represents the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority and its planned pipeline, admitted in a phone interview last week that the number of such filings was unusually high. But he said that...
The Tucumcari Public School board last week declined to implement a cellphone-use policy after apparently being satisfied with administrators’ varying approaches to students with their devices. Board members heard each principal's rules regarding cellphones during a July meeting and an Aug. 15 meeting. Elementary school principal Tonya Hodges said pupils there are required to keep phones in their lockers or backpacks. Middle school principal Lendall Borden said it adopted a more lenient cellphone policy during the start of the previous s...
Mesalands Community College on Thursday held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a $1.2 million remodel of its Academic and Student Success Center the college's president said would be "a major turning point" for the institution. About 60 people attended the event on the west side of the center, also known as Building A on the campus. Officials from Mesalands, City of Tucumcari and architect Melissa Walker of the Parkhill, Smith and Cooper firm of Amarillo that is leading the project held...
Quay County Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved an economic development plan that would make state funding available for some businesses in unincorporated parts of the county. County manager Daniel Zamora, who recommended passage of the ordinance that sets up the plan, said the measure is similar to what the City of Tucumcari has now. He said implementing an economic development plan would make rural businesses in the county eligible for Local Economic Development Act grant funds. Patrick Vanderpool, executive director of the Greater...
SAN JON - The host Lady Coyotes struggled with their serve-receive game during a season-opening volleyball loss Saturday against Roy-Mosquero, but a come-from-behind win in the first set may have provided a sliver of hope for the rest of the year. The Lady Pirates had more frontline firepower and depth in their lineup, and they often showed it during their 21-25, 25-10, 25-7, 25-11 non-district victory. It looked as if it was going to be more of a dogfight when the Lady Coyotes, down 7-15 in...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday approved a contract for a new city manager who is a resident and a longtime local public servant. Commissioners approved a three-year deal for Paula Chacon, a former county manager for Quay County from 2001 to 2004 and a former county manager in Union County, as well. Chacon was sitting in the gallery of the commission chambers as her contract was approved. According to the contract, she will be paid $84,718.40 a year. She begins her city manager duties on Aug. 23. Chacon serves as a business...
The Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday submitted to the state an Infrastructure Capital Improvements Plan for fiscal years 2024 through 2028 with extensive revisions, including constructing a new cell at the landfill as its top priority. Interim city manager Mark Martinez, noting the current cell at the landfill has less than a year left in its lifespan, recommended a new cell be No. 1 on the city’s wish list. The estimated cost of the cell is $2.1 million. The ICIP list not only can make projects eligible for annual capital outlay funds f...
Two Quay County Fair exhibitors donated almost $11,000 of their earnings from the Junior Livestock Auction on Saturday night to a Nara Visa couple seriously injured in a traffic accident. Those acts brightened a diminished fair that saw fewer exhibitors both in the livestock barns and exposition hall, smaller crowds and, for a third straight year, no carnival due to COVID-19 restrictions or scheduling difficulties. Anthony And Amanda Egerton suffered serious injuries in a rollover of their...
New Tucumcari High School football coach Donnie Garcia was mostly pleased with what he saw last week during a scrimmage at Texico – a hopeful sign for his Rattlers when they go on the road to face Jal for their season opener on Thursday night. Garcia said the first bit of good news from the scrimmage was his players suffered no injuries. The second bit was the Rattlers defense performed better than expected and didn't allow any scores. "Our defense definitely is ahead of our offense, although w...
The Tucumcari High School volleyball team may be in a rebuilding mode with its offense, but it has a lot of bricks from which to choose in that rebuild. About 35 girls were competing for a varsity spot during the first official practices last week. Not only can Tucumcari amply fill a varsity and junior-varsity roster, but it also can field a full "C" team. "We have a lot of depth, which is great," head coach Dana Benavidez said during an interview last week. "You can fill rosters for positions y...
Tucumcari city commissioners on Thursday at long last approved the donation of city land to Tucumcari Public Schools for the latter’s ballpark redevelopment plan. Interim city manager Mark Martinez, saying the donation was “long overdue,” said the deal involved not only city land near the convention center, but also county land. He said some of the property lines were not accurate, further complicating surveying of the site. TPS superintendent Aaron McKinney, seated in the gallery during the meeting, said surveying costs for the project swelled...
SAN JON - Alan Umholtz presided over his first meeting last week of the San Jon school board about a month after being hired as superintendent, and he promptly delivered favorable news - a rise in enrollment. During his superintendent's report at the board's Aug. 8 regular meeting, Umholtz said the number of prekindergarten through 12th-grade students at San Jon totaled 127, an increase of 13 from a year ago. "That's very good news," he said. "Great things are happening at San Jon." Umholtz said...
The GOP's candidate for governor missed quite a gathering Saturday morning sponsored by the Quay County Republican Party. Well over 100 people crowded into the Pow Wow Restaurant in Tucumcari for a pancake breakfast to greet and hear local and state candidates angling for residents' votes for the November election. Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti had been scheduled to show up at the event, but aides for other candidates said he begged off because he was preparing for an...
Conchas Lake finally is rising, but not enough for the Arch Hurley Conservancy District board to vote to discharge water into its irrigation canals. District manager Franklin McCasland said during the board’s Aug. 9 meeting the lake had gained about 900 acre-feet of net inflow in July and estimated another 5,000 acre-feet flowed into it during the first week of August. Conchas Lake’s level has risen more than two feet in the last month. He said most of the flow was coming from the Mora and Garita areas. However, the lake’s elevation of 4,161...
General price inflation and a recent flareup of COVID-19 cases in the region blunted attendance last week at the annual Rattler Reunion for Tucumcari High School alums. If there was ever a doubt the number of people at the event was lower, those would have been dispelled by Edna Blasingame. A member of THS' Class of 1955, the Amarillo resident has attended every Rattler Reunion since it began in the early 1970s. "This is the smallest attendance I've ever seen," Blasingame said Saturday night as...
Quay County commissioners on Monday approved an Infrastructure Capital Improvements Plan from 2024 to 2028 that includes a $25 million request to fund a new hospital in Tucumcari at the top of the priority list. The list goes on to the New Mexico Legislature for its consideration in its January session for capital outlay funds or an outright allocation from state lawmakers. County leaders anticipate they will use a combination of federal and state money to replace the nearly 60-year-old Dr. Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital. Best-case scenario,...
It look nearly 80 years, but little Jimmie Rudolfo Solano finally has a headstone at his grave in Tucumcari Memorial Park cemetery. Jimmie, who was less than six months old, died on Aug. 31, 1944, while suffering from a fever and was buried at the cemetery without a marker. Thanks to the efforts of his older sister and other relatives, they raised money to commission a gravestone and placed it there a few weeks ago. On Saturday morning, about two dozen of Jimmie's relatives gathered as the Rev....
Due to redistricting making the 3rd Congressional District more conservative-friendly, the National Republican Congressional Committee is pumping more money into a race to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of Las Vegas. Her GOP foe, Alexis Martinez Johnson, apparently is leaving no stone unturned in her campaign. She made stops Saturday at three restaurants in Tucumcari and greeted people who lined Route 66 during the Rattler Reunion parade. She campaigned in Clovis...
The Tucumcari Public Schools board during a special meeting last week chose to let the district’s revised dress code stand after hearing from coaches and other sponsors of extra-curricular activities. The board voted to approve the amended dress code during its regular meeting in July that clarified new rules about clothing, piercings and tattoos. However, at least one board member indicated he wanted the dress code to apply equally to students in extracurricular activities, including sports. The revised dress code states in part in its last p...
New place, new name. Wellborn Pharmacy last Monday closed its South Second Street location of about 60 years near downtown, moved to a bigger site on South First Street and renamed it Mesa Winds Healthmart Pharmacy when it reopened the next day. Brian Wilson, owner of the pharmacy now at 1923 S. First St., said in a telephone interview last Tuesday that moving all the equipment about a mile south went smoothly, but staff were busy filling prescriptions that piled up during the drugstore's brief...
Barbara Copeland is 88 years old, suffers from diabetes, is fitted with a pacemaker for her heart and admits she's fighting the effects of old age. Few likely would object if she took it easy to take care of herself. However, just last month, she and other family members emptied a lakeside house in Logan owned by her deceased mother and father and hauled the furniture, kitchen appliances, utensils, clothing, artwork and other items in two livestock trailers to a Las Vegas organization that's...